He told CNN’s Brooke Baldwin, “As a black gay man myself, I want to believe victims, especially those in our community that are subjected to hate crimes.”

Owens said hearing the details of the alleged attack resonated with him and to find out that a lot of the information coming out was a lie “disgusted me.”.

At one point he said responsibility lies with Smollett after the version of events he shared last week, saying he should apologize to everyone who were siding with and rooting for him.

Forbes columnist Adrienne Gibbs raised the issue of media coverage, particularly the confusion created by different leaks to the press and media aggregations of reports. She said right now everyone just needs to hear what the full truth of the situation is.